UAE web surfers have been promised a more “reliable and robust” internet service as a global technology giant and several major telecoms companies, including Etisalat, are collaborating on a new undersea cable system to connect several countries across the Middle East and Asia.

Communications giant Alcatel-Lucent yesterday announced it has signed a deal with telecoms firms in various countries to deploy the new 100G cable system - so-called because it can process 100 Gigabits per second - to connect Oman, the UAE, India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Communications giant Alcatel-Lucent yesterday announced it has signed a deal with telecoms firms in various countries to deploy the new 100G cable system

“The Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) cable system will enhance the robustness and reliability of international connectivity into and out of the six countries,” the firm said in a statement yesterday. The system will make landfall at a number of points along the route - connecting to the UAE at Fujairah. The new system is set to be operational by 2014.

It will underpin “the continued growth of new applications and services in the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East”, Alcatel-Lucent said.

Despite huge advances in technology in recent years, the fact remains that much of the internet system so critical the world today is reliant on a series of bulky cables strung along the bottom of the world’s oceans and seas.